The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-06-15

Y.
But you notice, my friends, that while they |
assaulted him they did not succeed really in |
killing him You may assault good man,
but you cannot kill him On the day of his |
death, Stephen spoke before few people in |
the Sanhedrim: this Sabbath morn he adj |
dresses all Christendom- Paul, the apostle, |
stood on Mars Hill addressing handful of
philosophers who knew not so much about |
science as a modern school girl Today he
talks to all the millions of Christendom about
the wonders Of justification and the glories
Of resurrection. John Wesley was howled
down by the mob to whom he preached, and
they threw bricks at him, and they denounced
him, and jostled him, and they spat upon him,
and yet to-day, in all lands, he is admitted to
be the great father of Methodism. Booths
bullet vacated the presidential chair, but
from that spot of coagulated blood on the
floor in the box of Ford's theatre there sprang
up the new life of nation. Stephen stoned;
but Stephen alive.
Pass on now, and see Stephen irr his dying
prayer. His first thought was not how the
stones hurt his head, nor what would become
of his body. His first thought was about his
spirit "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit The
murderer standing the trap door. the
black cap being drawn down over his head
before the execution, may grimace about the
future; bat you and have no shame in con-
Tossing some anxiety about where we are go
ing TO come out You are not all body. There
is within you a soul l see it CLEAN from your
eyes today, and l see it irradiating your coun-
tenance. Sometimes am abashed before an
audience, not because 1 come under your ply
steal eyesight, but because realize the truth
that / stand before so many immortal spirits.
The probability Is that your body will at last
find sepulture in some of the cemeteries that
surround this city. There is no dohbt but
that you VIII will be able to pillow your head
under the maple, or the Norway spruce, or
the cypress, or the poisoning fir; but this
spirit about which Stephen prayed, what
direction viii that take7 What guide win
escort it, What gate will open to receive
itq What cloud will be cleft for its pathway?
After it has get beyond the light of our sun,
will there be torches lighted for it the rest of
the wayl VIII the soul have to travel
through long deserts before it reaches the
good land? If we should lose our pathway,
will there be a castle at whose gate we may
ask the way to the city? o, this mysterious
spirit within usl 1t has two wings, but it is
in a cage now. 1t is locked fast TO keep it;
but let the door of this cage open the least
and that soul is off Eagles wing could not
catch it. The ightnings not swift enough
to take up with it. When the soul leaves the
body it takes fifty worlds at bound And
have / no anxiety about itg Have you no
anxiety about it, i do not care what you do
with my body when my soul is gone, OF
whether you believe in cremation or inhuma-
| ton. / shall sleep just as well in a wrapping
of sackcloth as in satin lined with eagles
| down. But my soul-before l leave this
house this morning viii find out where it is
| going to land. Thank God for the intimation
| of my text, that when we die Jesus takes us.
| That answers all questions for me. What
| though there were massive bars between here
and the city of light; Jesus could remove
| them. What though there were great Sas
| haras of darkness; Jesus could illume them.
| What though get weary on the way; Christ
| could lift me on his omnipotenu shoulder
| What though there were chasms to cross; his
hand could transport me. Then let Stephens
| prayer be my dying litany-"Lord Jesus, re-
| ceive my spirit. 1t may be in that hour we will
be too feeble to say a long prayer; it may be
we will not be able to say the Lords prayer, for
it has seven petitions. Perhaps we may be
too feeble even to say the infant prayer our
mothers taught us, which John Quincy
| Adams, 20 years of age, said every night
when he put his head upon his pillow:
Now / lay me down to sleep,
| Ipray the Lord my soul to keep.
We may be too feeble to employ either of
| these familiar forms; but this prayer Of
| Stephen is so Short is so concise, is so earnest
| is so comprehensive, we surely will be able
to say that: lord Jesus, receive my spirit. :"
Oh, if that prayer is answered, how sweet it
will be to diet This world is clever enough
to us. Perhaps it has treated us great deal
| better than we deserved to be treated; but if
| on the dying pillow there shall break the
| light of that better world, we shall have no
| more regret about leaving small, dark,
damp house for one large, beautiful and ca
| pacious That dying minister in Philadelphia
some years ago, beautifully depicted it when,
in the last moment, he threw up his hands
/ and cried out:
| Il move into the light!"
Pass on now and will show you one more
| picture, and that is Stephen asleep. With a
| pathos and simplicity peculiar to the Scrip
lures, the text says of Stephen: "He fell
asleep" "Oh," you say, what place that
was to sleepi A hard rock under him, stones
falling down upon him, the blood streaming
| the mob bowling. What a place it was to
sleep" And yet my text takes that symbol
of slumber to describe his departure, SO sweet
| was IL, so contented was it, SO peaceful was
/ it. Stephen had lived a very laborious life
| His chief work had been to care for the poor
| How many loaves of bread he distributed,
how many bare feet he had sandaled, how
many cots of sickness and distress he blessed
with ministries of kindness and love, do not
know; but from the way he lived, and the
way he preached, and the way he died,
know he was a laborious Christian. But that
is all over now. He has pressed the cup to
the last fainting lip.
He has taken the last insult from his enc
mics. The last stone to whose crushing
weight he is susceptible has been hurled.
| Stephen is deadl The disciples come They
take him up. They wash away the blood
from the wounds. They straighten out the
| bruised limbs. They brush back the tangled
hair from the brow, and then they pass
around to look upon the calm countenance Of
him who had lived for the poor and died for
the truth. Stephen asleep have seen the
sea driven with the hurricane until the
tangled foam caught in the rigging, and
| wave rising above wave seemed as if about to
storm the heavens, and then have seen the
tempest drop, and the waves crouch, and
everything become smooth and FURNISHED as
though camping place for the glories Of
heaven. So / have seen a man, whose life
has been tossed and driven, coming down at
last to an infinite calm, in which there was
the hush of heavens lullaby. Stephen asleep!
I saw such an one. He fought all his days
against poverty and against abuse. They
traduced his name. They ratified at the door
knob while he was dying, with duns for debts
he could not pay; yet the peace of God
brooded over bis pillow, and while the world
faded, heaven dawned, and the deepening
twilight of earth's night was only the open
ing twilight of heavens morn. Not sigh
Nota tear. Not a struggle. Hushl Stephen
asleepl
have not the faculty to tell the weather
| L fall NV Satfi yrh har
there will be drought or not. cannot tell
| by the blowing of the wind whether it viii
be fair weather or foul on the morrow. But
can prophesy, and | viii prophesy what
| weather 1t viii be when you, the Christian,
come to die. You may have it very rough
| now. 1t may be this week one annoyance,
| the next another annoyance 1t may be this
| year.one bereavement, the next another be-
reavement. Before this year has passed you
may have to beg for bread, or ask for scuttle
of coal or pair of shoes; but spread your
death couch amid the leaves of the forest or
| make it out of the straw of a pauper's hut,
the wolf in the jungle bowling close by, or
memorable creditors jerking the pillow from
under your dying head. Christ viii come in
| and darkness win go ont. And though there
may be no hand to close your eyes ard no
breast on which to rest your dying head and
no candle to lift the night, the odors of Gods
hanging garden viii regale your soul and at
| your bedside will halt the chariots of tho
king. No more rents to pay, no more agony
because -four has gone up, no more struggle
with s'the world, the flesh and the devil, n bss
| peace-long, deep, everlasting peace. Stephen
asleepi
ASLEEP In Jesus. blessed sleep, =.
| From which none ever wake to weep,
A calm and undisfurbed repose,
Uninjured by the last of foes